With the way they operate, can the rest of the world be far behind? From the WUWT tips and notes we have this news.
Will and also John from New Zealand say:
Greenpeace in New Zealand have just lost their court appeal to retain their charitable tax status. It seems that legally they’re now viewed as a political lobby group:
http://business.scoop.co.nz/2011/05/09/greenpeace-too-political-to-register-as-charity-nz-court/
Greenpeace too political to register as charity, NZ court rules
By Paul McBeth
May 9 (BusinessDesk) – Environmental lobbyist Greenpeace of New Zealand Inc. is too involved in political causes to register as a charity, the High Court has ruled.
Justice Paul Heath turned down an appeal last Friday that Greenpeace could register with the Charities Commission after the body rejected its 2010 application.
Justice Heath said Greenpeace’s political activities can’t be regarded as “merely ancillary” to its charitable purposes and that the commission was correct in disqualifying it for registration over the potentially illegal activities.
Since the annual world-wide budget of Greenpeace is in the region of $US600 million, much of it contributed by various governments, I don’t think this will hurt them too much. But an important principle has been enunciated that should remove the righteous glaze from some of their members’ eyes.
Larry’s comment: It’s about bloody time. An organization that makes we-know-where-you-live violent threats against an entire class of people with whom it disagrees does not deserve charitable status.
Well done, Kiwis! A Brit looks on, feeling considerable envy.
Fiends of the Earth & World Wildlies Fund next please!
DaveE.
we can all breathe now
Ooooo’ that sinking feeling
I don’t often punch the air. The way NZ is changing, there may yet be somewhere to emigrate to from the UK.
It is a welcome start, but I wonder how long it will be before these people haters will be recognised as “Hostes humani generis” ie the common enemies of human kind: a term formerly applied to pirates?
Let us all hope that Oz can soon shed her green shackles soon, too.
TimC says:
May 10, 2011 at 1:08 am
I do not think you are correct. I receive regular ‘donations’ from my customers, but I think the tax man would not allow me to consider these as non-taxable! They would be in exactly the same position.
At last, NZ makes a sensible “green” decision. Go Kiwi! Proud of the homeland.
Everywhere one looks, the warmist castle is beginning to crumble. It’ll take a while before we can all dance (or worse) on its grave, but that day is coming.
The wave of popular support and general fuzzy good vibes about supposedly ‘cuddly’ organisations like GP, WWF, 10:10 is rapidly being replaced by well-founded cynicism and mistrust.
Even in UK, sanity is beginning to burst out in high places.
Our Cabinet is split about the need to actually implement the previous government’s disastrous Climate Change Act..or just to let it wither away..forgotten, unloved, unwanted and useless.
An artefact of those heady days before Copenhagen, Climategate and Cancun when the warmist troops thought that they were in sight of the Promised Land.
How sad that like all their ideas, even that was an illusion too. A mirage made up of wishful thinking, the heady scent of power and the dodgy divinations of Climatology.
Protect forests to have a weather and climate in the clean!
ALL these environmental groups are political lobby groups. They all con people into giving money to enable them to change government policy to their thinking. Let them start to pay for the damage they create dreaming up lies about the environment and CAGW.
Not too fast, apparently they are appealing to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. They make some strange decisions and are blinded by ‘good causes’ and do gooders.
Personally, I hope they fail, I am sick of those tossers telling me how to live my life.
Since the annual world-wide budget of Greenpeace is in the region of $US600 million, much of it contributed by various governments, I don’t think this will hurt them too much.
It would be terrible for them if similar decisions were made around the world. That’s why they fought it.
Firstly donations are not tax free, so their income will be dramatically reduced. (Let’s be clear here, it will be the donor paying the tax, but tax will still be paid.)
Secondly certain benefits accrue to charities. If, for example, a group gives money to “charity” (say the Lotto organisation in NZ) then Greenpeace will no longer be eligible. They may require greater auditing too.
Most importantly, I suspect, is the loss of face and prestige. Once they are routinely seen as a political organisation first and foremost, they will suffer all the downsides of that.
And about B****y time. In Australia the likes of Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, National Parks Associations, Friends of the Earth, Wilderness Society, The Climate Institute, etc. have long claimed to be charity organisations. They should be seen for what they are, politically motivated environmental activist groups.
Congratulations to N.Z. for one small step in the right direction.
BRAVO Kiwis
This is excellent. I’ve been demanding the end of charitable status for Greenpeace, SIerra Club et al for some time.
I think more and more that its in court that the whole MMGW industry has to be exposed. Its the only arena that has the tools to stop the constant switching of subjects and refusal to answer the question asked.
Every time something goes to court like this they lose. I think there needs to be a fund (or charity if you will) that can start challenging these scoundrels.
Can’t wait until someone gets to the core of this junk in a court and cross examines the East Anglia crowd or the Hockey team on their shennanigans.
Allan M says:
May 10, 2011 at 2:04 am
I don’t often punch the air. The way NZ is changing, there may yet be somewhere to emigrate to from the UK.
Want to share a cab?
Well done, Kiwis!
Cathy says:
May 10, 2011 at 12:05 am
Couldn’t have happened to a nastier, more malign, and pernicious organization.
“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
– Paul Watson,
co-founder of Greenpeace
Was it not one Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (you know, the guy who effectively signed the death warrants of hundreds of thousands of people, just because they disagreed with his point of view & he knew best) who said “if you tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth”?
Surprisingly sane decision.
Thanks to all for the really great comments in this thread. This is an excellent precedent that will not go unnoticed by the judiciary in other countries.
Folks are starting to understand the scam of leveraging government contributions to NGOs / QUANGOS – funds which are then used to pry ever more public tax money from a population that would object to the misuse of their funds – if only they had a say in the matter. The NZ court has taken decisive action to protect the average taxpaying citizen, who is powerless on his own when confronted by an organization with $.6 billion in annual discretionary revenues. That much money buys politicians by the boatload.
There is no excuse for giving tax-exempt status to Greenpeace, the WWF, and similar political organizations. Those organizations have learned to game the system to the detriment of already hard-bitten taxpayers. The sooner their undeserved tax-exempt status is revoked in other countries, the better. This is a great start, and the NZ court’s decision is to be applauded.
Thank you New Zealand.